How The Postal Service Can Recover, Reduce Online Crime
The U.S. Postal Service is the most loved federal organization with constitutional roots. In recent years, USPS has struggled immensely. The problem is mail volume. Though a few people advocate privatization, I believe that we should continue USPS as a quasi-federal organization.
Business suffered due to new entrants, such as email services. USPS has Every Door Direct Mail, but it lost ground to email marketing services. For every dollar spent on email marketing, the ROI is $40 on average.
There used to be a strong need for postal services regarding legal correspondence. That is changing slowly with substitute services, such as DocuSign. Court services are moving online. Most companies offer email updates.
Another area is package delivery. Amazon used to be USPS’s biggest shipper, but that has changed, dealing a severe blow to USPS.
In the third quarter of 2019, USPS showed a drop in package delivery volume – the first time that USPS had a decline in every delivery area.
Amazon has Amazon Prime Air with its drone patents. Walmart also has entered the drone patent race, and UPS has started drone deliveries. Such services are going to challenge the USPS’s fundamental business model.
With the increased use of technology, online crime has skyrocketed. From 2015 to 2019, victims lost $10.2 billion. Another issue is ransomware attacks, such as WannaCry.
The USPS could help fight these crimes by modernizing itself with an email service (where only verified users can email each other) and electronic money transfer services.
USPS would issue an email ID giving you the same privacy rights you have with your physical mailbox. Everything done offline would be done online. Nothing would have changed but the medium. The approach would also benefit the environment.
Mail carriers could be retrained in new areas to ensure they don’t lose their jobs. If the USPS does not take these steps, all USPS jobs will be at risk.
USPS must start an email marketing service and drone delivery service. With its entrance into the electronic and drone delivery space, USPS would get its profitability back and, in the process, reduce online crime.
